LAHORE: PEOPLE having literary taste from across the country attended the second day events of the seventh Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) on Saturday. As many as 32 sessions were held on the second day of the festival. People showed keen interest in every session. The LLF provided an opportunity to people to attend the sessions of their interests.
A large number of men and women attended the session titled “A Woman Like Her.” Sanam Maher discussed the aspects of the life of Qandeel Baloch who was killed by her brother in the name of socalled honour. On the occasion, Amar Sindhu, a Sindhi poet and activist, said Qandeel was killed because she had crossed the limitats determined by the male-dominated society. Woman is a daughter, wife, mother and friend.
She has many roles n her life. Qandeel exposed the typical mindset of men, he said. “The story of Qandeel is a story of every woman in our country; it does not matter to what class she belongs,” Amar said. In the session, honour killings were discussed in detail. In all cases of honour killings, families of the victims are responsible, said Ammara Athar, a police officer posted in Bahwalnagar. She said, “In my career, the first honour killing case was in Lahore and the entire family was saying she killed herself. How vulnerable is a girl in her house that she doesn't know her own brother is plotting hermurder,” said Ammara Athar. In a session “War Writing, Syria: Unraveling of a Cultural Haven in the Middle East, Rania Abuuzeid, Lalage Snow, Osama bin Javaid and Secunder Kermani discussed the critical situation of Syria and said it was difficult to confirm the stories. In Syria, IS/Daesh is a great threat, said the panellists of the session. According to them, refugees from the war-torn country migrated to Turkey and Lebanon. Around 5 million people were killed and no one could stop the killers.
The panellists said the situation was very tense in Syria. "I'm not an adrenaline junkie; I don't even considermyself a war reporter. I covered the Middle East and the parts that happened to fall into the conflict," said award-winning journalist Rania Abouzeid. Actors Iqra Aziz and Atiqa Odho discussed the perceived misogyny in Pakistani drama serials.
Historian Ayesha Jalal discussed Kashmir alongside Anam Zakaria, who recently published a book with the interviews of the residents of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Iqra Aziz said, "We need to change the attitude that only a woman who leaves the house and works is a strong woman as there are also strong women in homes.” She talked about her own mother who worked hard in salons and became the first cab captain. Atiqa Odho said, "Majority of the media houses are owned by men. I grew up with five sisters and we're all career women who don't have time to do all these conspiracies. There is a need to change the content to reflect us. We need to tell our own stories.”
Award-winning essayist Pankaj Mishra discussed his book The Age of Anger with author Mohsin Hamid. Royal Library Curator Emily Hannam and noted literary historian Francesca Orsini discussed the Padshanama, a manuscript of some of the most famous Mughal paintings ever created. At the end, a performance by Spanish guitarist Raul Viela was presented.
